1. Field of the Invention
Priority is claimed on Japanese application No. 2003-187067, filed Jun. 30, 2003, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a finisher for a vehicle that allows a switch for disabling and enabling operations of keyless entry systems such as back doors, trunks, and the like to be easily fitted in a door panel or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, as is described in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication (JP-A) No. 2001-152710, for example, a door handle used in an electronic lock release type of door in a vehicle is known in which, in a door handle having a concave area into which a hand can be inserted, a lifting type of operation portion and a switch that performs a release operation on an electronic lock are installed within an aperture formed on a top surface of the concave area, and a spring member that presses the switch and a spring member that causes the operation portion to be reset are provided between the operation portion and the switch. In this type of door handle, because the operating force on the operation portion is transmitted to the switch via a spring member it is possible to reduce the load on the switch and prevent damage to the switch.
In recent years, keyless entry systems in which a door is locked or unlocked by a remote operation without an ignition key being used have been employed in automobiles and the like. These systems do away with the troublesome task of having to insert an ignition key in a door key cylinder and then rotate it each time the car door is locked or unlocked. In these systems, a lock signal or an unlock signal is transmitted by radio wave or the like towards a receiving circuit installed inside a vehicle from a transmission circuit built into the ignition key. In the apparatus in the vehicle that receives the signal the door key is either locked or unlocked depending on the received signal and the state of the lock when the signal is received. However, on the contrary, it is inconvenient if the state of the door lock is immediately switched when a user carrying the ignition key unintentionally approaches the vehicle. Therefore, the operation of the entry system can be restricted such that the state of the door lock is not altered even if a signal is received, and a switch that implements or removes such operation restrictions is mounted on the vehicle or the like.
However, if an operation restriction/release switch is installed in an obvious position such as on the back door, then there is a possibility of a person other than the user (for example, a child) damaging the switch in some manner. Therefore, in order to inhibit the switch being operated by anyone other than the user it was conceived that the switch could be formed integrally with a finisher so that it did not stand out. However, because a finisher is formed having a narrow, elongated shape, when a sizeable load acted on the switch, stress sufficient for the finisher to be deformed was applied to the finisher, which prevented the finisher from being used for this purpose. In the mechanism used in the door handle described in JP-A No. 2001-152710, the mechanism around the switch ends up becoming complex which makes it difficult to be applied in a narrow, elongated finisher.
The present invention was conceived in view of the above circumstances and it is an object thereof to provide a finisher for a vehicle that allows a switch that restricts an operation of a keyless entry system of a trunk or back door or the like or removes such a restriction to be mounted easily in a door panel or the like.